A Wager

Bear Lord seemed to have accepted his fate. The violent soul power around him faded, and he stopped struggling.

He hung from her hand like a toy.

Seeing that he had given up, Firefly loosened her grip slightly, allowing him to breathe again.

They had mainly come to drum up business. If they simply killed someone else's subordinate, this deal would probably fall through.

Otherwise, given Firefly's temperament, Bear Lord would have been reduced to ashes the moment she first struck.

After all, she was the one skilled at creating hells.

"H-How is that possible?"

Crimson King cried out.

He stared in disbelief at Bear Lord, who was utterly unable to resist in the armored figure's grasp.

Before, he had only been a little stronger than me.

Yet now, he could effortlessly make Bear Lord, who was far stronger than him, lose all will to fight in an instant!

So that human had been telling the truth. He really had held back then.

All of a sudden, Crimson King felt a trace of relief.

Bi Ji covered her mouth with a delicate hand, her face equally filled with shock. Though she disliked Bear Lord's violent temper, everyone agreed that his strength ranked only below Di Tian's.

But now...

"Mm, run."

Myriad Demon King turned and ran into the forest without the slightest hesitation.

His poor little heart could not bear to watch this. Bear Lord alone had already been too much, and now an even fiercer one had appeared.

This was making things far too difficult for a tree.

Yu Wuyi smiled at Di Tian and said, "Your subordinates don't seem very friendly toward me. It shouldn't be a problem if I teach him a lesson, right?"

His tone was utterly relaxed. Those who held the initiative were always the stronger side.

Di Tian's gaze moved away from Bear Lord, passed over the spatial rift that was repairing itself, and returned to Yu Wuyi.

An inscrutable look appeared in his brilliant golden vertical pupils, and he had never been more serious.

Things seemed not to be as he had imagined.

Merely moving had shattered space, and even he had found it difficult to track.

His earlier assumptions had been far too optimistic.

A demigod-tier weapon?

Heh, it was probably more than that.

"Bear Lord is violent by nature. It is only natural for a stronger being to teach him a lesson."

"But you, coming to my Star Dou Great Forest, surely did not come merely to discipline him."

Clearly, Firefly's display just now had served as an excellent deterrent.

If anyone else had dared to act before him, putting aside whether they could defeat Bear Lord, even if they truly won, he would make sure they remained here forever.

There was a reason this place was called the Great Ferocious Land by those humans.

But she had subdued Bear Lord so cleanly and decisively that he had even lost the will to resist.

Di Tian knew that he could not accomplish such a feat without using the Dragon God Claw.

In other words, this armored figure was no weaker than him, yet he obeyed the human before him.

Just who was this human?

"What if I said that was exactly why we came?"

Seeing Di Tian at a disadvantage, Yu Wuyi's playful side emerged.

He wanted to know what decision Di Tian would make in response to such an act of openly trampling on his authority.

"If that armor is what you are relying on, then I advise you not to be too arrogant."

"Do you think he alone can keep you safe?"

A cold glint appeared in Di Tian's eyes as he stared straight at the human before him.

Throughout the ages, countless beings had come to challenge his authority, humans among them.

Yet without exception, all who challenged him had failed.

The weaker ones had remained here forever, becoming nourishment for all things that grew in this place.

Yu Wuyi merely revealed a meaningful smile and said lightly:

"How about we make a bet?"

"If you win, I'll let you do whatever you want with me."

"But if I win, we'll be friends from now on—just us, nothing to do with any other humans."

To keep Di Tian from misconstruing it as reconciliation between soul beasts and humans, he had deliberately added that restriction.

"Friends?"

This development caught Di Tian off guard. They had come all the way to the Star Dou Great Forest just to make friends?

What exactly was this human thinking?

The terms seemed to favor them, but Di Tian knew full well how cunning humans were. Naturally, he would not agree so easily.

"Though I don't know what you're plotting, a human comes all the way here just to make friends?"

"Do I look like an idiot to you?"

"I won't accept this bet."

But I really did come here to make friends, Yu Wuyi muttered inwardly, feeling wronged.

Still, this was all within his expectations. Two humans coming to the Great Ferocious Land just to make friends—

Wasn't that like a weasel paying respects to a chicken?

So he had long since prepared a solution.

"What if I told you the bet would be a one-on-one fight between you and me?"

"What?" Di Tian frowned slightly, not understanding what he meant.

Yu Wuyi said with a smile, "Exactly what it sounds like. You and me, one-on-one. We bet on who wins and who loses."

Di Tian stared fixedly at the human before him. Only now did he notice that the other party had heterochromatic eyes.

Moreover, the texture of those eyes was peculiar. They did not look like eyes a human could possess.

He could not understand where this human's confidence came from.

That suit of armor was the only thing capable of threatening him, yet the other party was giving up his greatest reliance and choosing to fight him alone?

With only his newly reached nineteenth-level soul power?

No human who dared come to the Great Ferocious Land like this could possibly be unaware of his identity.

To put it bluntly, so long as the sleeping one was excluded—

He was the strongest being on this continent, standing at the very peak of the pyramid!

Even the strongest of the rest were at least an entire tier below him.

The other party should not have been unaware of this, yet he still chose to bet against him?

"That armor won't intervene?"

Yu Wuyi nodded and replied, "She won't intervene. It'll just be you and me."

Di Tian fell into thought. After a moment, he still shook his head.

"This wager isn't worth my doing that."

So he wants to raise the stakes now?

Yu Wuyi chuckled inwardly. Since the fish had already taken the bait, it was time to throw in something even heavier.

Once this news came out, perhaps even the Silver Dragon King sleeping in these depths would awaken.

But that would only be a good thing for him. As long as it could provide acting points, it did not matter who came.

Of course, evil soul masters were excluded. Those things were neither human nor beast—probably some sort of new species.

If they dared come to the Odd Jobs House? The moment they showed themselves, they would be instantly killed!

"What if we add a wager related to the Divine Realm?"

The moment those words left his mouth, Di Tian's gaze became incomparably profound.

For all these years, those two words had lingered in his mind without a moment's respite.

Once, he had regarded them as a source of pride. Now, they had become something forever beyond his reach.

For the other party to mention the Divine Realm at this moment meant that he knew far more than Di Tian had expected.

To confirm this, he asked without showing it, "The Divine Realm? What does that have to do with me?"

Keep pretending. When it comes to obsession with the Divine Realm, in all of Douluo Continent, perhaps only the Silver Dragon King can compare to you.

And you're still putting on a calm act in front of me.